Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Oilers Game Day-Ducks

I actually don't blame Lauren Pronger for anything (nor do I feel I have reason to), and I stopped being angry at Chris Pronger about two weeks into July (although intellectually I find his handling of the situation cowardly and his catch-all excuse completely unsound), but sometimes, the Muses just take you places.

 Staios and Markkanen are out for the Oilers. Syvret and Deslauriers have been called up, and may draw in. Personally, I would have liked to have seen Tom "Brad" Gilbert get the call up over Syvret, but we all know MacT is going to go with the safe choice (i.e. previous NHL experience). Grinny and Spazzy are probably out for the Ducks, which means Michael Wall and David McKee will likely be the goaltending tandem. As long as the Oilers get more than 11 shots on them through two periods, they should be fine.

 While the Ducks seventeen wins are impressive, don't let anyone fool you with the "they've only lost twice" argument. They've lost six times in overtime. Plus, they lost to the Flyers, despite Philly only getting 4 shots on net over the last two periods. As Earl has pointed out, they also haven't had a very difficult schedule. The Ducks are a good team, maybe even a great team, but they haven't yet proven that they are an elite team.

 Anaheim has the 4th best PP in the NHL (21.6%), and are 9th on the PK (85.4%). Edmonton is 14th (16.8%) on the PP, and 1st on the PK (90.8%).

 Anyone else getting a little tired about the Oilers players fawning over Pronger? I know you are still friends, and a player's loyalty to his city and jersey is mostly a thing of the past (if it ever existed at all), but could you guys at least pretend for a few minutes that he's on the opposing team and that that really bothers you? I'm just waiting for one of them to pull a Jeremy Roenick and tell us we are stupid.

 The Oilers of course traded Chris Pronger for Joffrey Lupul, Ladislav Smid, and two, maybe three, high draft picks. But the trade also freed up some cap space, allowing them to sign players like Lupul and Petr Sykora. Let's take a look how each team has fared with its new players, using some traditional statistics.

Player

Goals

Assists

Points

Plus/Minus

TOI/G

Avg. $

Age

Anaheim Ducks

Chris Pronger

4

22

26

+16

27:28

$6,250,000

32

Edmonton Oilers

Petr Sykora

12

12

24

+2

16:41

$2,900,000

30

Joffrey Lupul

7

5

12

-5

16:12

$2,311,666

23

Ladislav Smid

0

2

2

0

18:26

$915,100

20

Ducks Total

4

22

26

+16

27:28

$6,250,000

32

Oilers Total

19

19

38

-3

51:22

$6,162,666

24.3 (Avg.)

 For good measure, let's look again at how the Ducks have fared against the Oilers in the 21st Century:

Year

Oilers Wins

Ducks Wins

Ties

Ducks Wins In Edmonton

2006-2007

0

1

0

0

2005-2006

8

1

0

1

2003-2004

3

1

0

0

2002-2003

4

0

0

0

2001-2002

3

1

0

0

2000-2001

2

1

1

0

1999-2000

1

1

0

0

Games Played Since 2000

Oilers Wins

Ducks Wins

Ties

Games Played In Edmonton

Ducks Wins In Edmonton

Oilers Winning %

Oilers Winning % At Home

28

21

6

1

15

2

75%

86.6%

 I've been good friends with a guy named Shane O'Bryan for eleven years. Little did I know he'd get beat up one day by Derek Boogard.

 The game is on PPV, but Kinger says it will also be available on TVU.

 Via Kukla, I see that the L.A. Times is reporting that "some fans reportedly plan to pelt him [Pronger] with pacifiers." That's news to me. I'd like the L.A. Times to tell me who "some fans" are.

 Thanks to Eric McErlain for giving us the shout out in his NBC article yesterday.

 John Mackinnon has a great take on Pronger's press conference, in his blog for the Edmonton Journal.

 Earl has some sound advice for the Oilers faithful: look for the name, not the number!

Prediction: 4-2, Oilers. Smytty, Horcoff, Lupul, and Hemsky. Plenty of boos and funny/caustic signs at Rexall, but no Edmonton Handshakes.

I've been thinking about this too... but really who is going to hit Pronger? A nice Matt Greene check would be good, but another defensemen (stay at home variety at that) ... not likely. Raffi could running after him... but Pronger would likely catch us out of position and throw out some break away pass to Selanne.

Likewise, Stortini did not stay up with the team.

I think we are better off just beating on the scoreboard. I wouldn't mind Hemsky dancing in around him for a goal though.

With no forwards called up, I guess Reasoner will be back in action yes?

Oof. The worst thing about that O'Brien fight (AND the subsequent Fedoruk fight) was that the Ducks took instigator penalties each time just to get their spirits (and faces) broken. This at the time when Minny was sporting that league-best power play, too!

Any way, here's an important thing to remember tonight, Pronger haters!

The Ducks have had a pretty soft schedule. It has been heavy on the home games at the very least. Despite the excuses, they've still been better than I expected. They slapped the Sharks around last week and I was convinced that was the best WC team coming into the year.

No one speaks ill because it's us against them and us is the NHLPA and them is management and the fans.

Pronger fucked the other guys on the team by asking for a deal and then Lowe forgot to leave their money on the nightstand when he brought in a 20 year old D and a 20 something forward who doesn't look the most intense or interested.

I saw Pronger talking about there's still a lot of youth left on the Oilers and there's still promise. That was a kick in the nuts because it brought back the point that for the 100th year in the row the Oilers are once again rebuilding and to paraprhase JS.Pronger has the primary assist.

The most disappointing thing about the lead-in to the game is the total lack of vitriol being shown by the Oilers players. Where is "that f***er abandoned us and we're gonna go out there and show him who the best team in the Western Conference is." Instead, I'm reading quotes from Lupul, Horcoff and Smyth like they've been elected directors of the Chris Pronger Fan Club. Its' sickening. Pre-expansion, players got fined for fraternizing with the enemy.

what a weird game. Pronger seemed like he didn't want to play it...right down to the fact he skated off the ice along while his teammates celebrated the OT winner.

the fans started giving it to him in P1 but then almost totally laid off after that.

meanewhile the Oilers PPV crew hardly even played up the Pronger angle. they showed no signs at all and they had this lame ass "who's the biggest villian in Oilers history" and yes Pronger was there but so where the Flames???I mean who did they expect to win that one.

I had a sinking feeling in the second intermission when Ethan Moreau said something to the effect of "We're up two-one and Roli's playing well enough that we can hang on to win." And then he uttered some crap about needing to play "situational hockey."

And so the typical second period suck was rolled out for the third period. Utterly disappointing given how much drive the Oil showed in the first, dominating the play and owning the shots (which were 11-3 at the end of the first, I think, before moving in Anaheim's favour at the end of the second).

what's with george parros's 70's porn star look? fuck, i want to shave his head and mustache.

earl, how do you stomach ahler and hayward? anaheim play by play guy consistently gets his facts wrong- torres is local edmonton boy who led the team in scoring last playoffs with 14 goals. hayward and ahler sound like they have man crushes on the entire ducks team... and thanks for explaining what a scoring chance is to me.

oilers ended up getting what they deserved, unfortunately, but fuck, if you're going to lose in ot, at least get scored on with 7 or 8 minutes left to play instead of 20 seconds. fuck that rips my heart out. similar to the detroit game, i guess. perhaps that evens things out with the hockey gods.

reasoner, lupul strong tonight.

any word on what's up with hemsky's injury? without him on the ice there is such a noticable lack of skill. bunch of guys with their tool belts on.

fuck selanne still has his wheels at 37. fuck the ducks looked fast and dangerous all night. why can't the oilers do that?

why do the oilers continue to suck every second period? fuck, put the boots to a team for once!!!

i am going to write "fuck" one more time. feel ripped off after tivo'ing the game and staying up 'til 1am to watch the game out on the east coast.